DESCRIPTION (Applicant's Description): This application is for partial funding of a conference called "DNA Alterations in Transformed Cells" to be held under the auspices of the Gordon Research Conferences (GRC) at Colby-Sawyer College from August 9 to 14, 1998. This will be the second biennial GRC conference on this topic during a particularly exciting time for many of the subdisciplines in this broad field. At this conference, the attendees (130 maximum) working on various aspects of cellular transformation will be able to interact. A major goal of this conference is to promote dialogue between those studying genetic and epigenetic factors in carcinogenesis. The meeting will feature nine speaker sessions and daily poster sessions. From submitted abstracts, the poster presenters as well as about six of the speakers will be chosen. Therefore, this conference will provide a good forum for younger investigators, as well as internationally renowned senior scientists, to present their research findings. In addition, as at the first conference in this series, there will be a heavy emphasis on formal discussion, with 15-20 minutes set aside for discussion after each talk and discussion leaders prepared in advance to stimulate questions and comments from participants. This conference will provide a meeting ground for investigators working on inherited cancer syndromes, DNA methylation, imprinting, DNA repair, telomerase, karyotypic instability, breast cancer, apoptosis, and endogenous and hormonal contributions to cancer development and tumor progression. Recent discoveries have uncovered mechanisms linking several of these fields so that cross-talk among investigators may yield synergistic advances. Furthermore, the wide range of investigations to be covered at this conference will span basic studies to translational and clinical studies.